(March 26, 2019 at 2:23 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: It's not a particularly efficient application of welfare, either. We know that the families who get it would benefit more, and in a more appropriate frame of time, if we just handed them money.
Or, ofc, people could just get paid for their work, you know.
Yep, it's a horrible system of welfare. It completely destroys the concept of equal pay for equal work. There is a strong case to be made that it has held wages down since people with dependents are willing to work for less so that they will qualify for the EITC. The minimum wage hasn't been raised for about 10 years, and when raising the minimum wage is discussed, many argue for increasing the EITC instead. So an employee without dependents who earns minimum wage has had their income shrink over ten years of inflation, while those with dependents have received raises from the EITC. The system gives people with no dependents plenty of incentive to drop out of the workforce since they aren't being paid fairly, and it doesn't give employers an incentive to raise wages since those with dependents will desperately keep working so that they will qualify for their welfare check. It has caused animosity between low wage employees who receive the EITC and those who don't, since the one who doesn't is robbed to pay the one who does.
Even worse, the recipient of the welfare check really does not understand that the EITC is a welfare check. They actually believe that it is earned, which really inflates their sense of entitlement. And that leads their confused asses to be outraged by the idea of anyone receiving welfare while being welfare recipients themselves. And just as entitled are the welfare recipients such as Drich, who actually believes that he is not a recipient of welfare when the wages that he pays are subsidized by the government.
When we give welfare to people who don't work or can't work, that social safety net increases the bargaining position of low wage earners. It gives employees the option of refusing to work for wages that or too low or for employers who are too abusive. But when we make working for the low wage employers a prerequisite for qualifying for a welfare check, we deprive the poorest workers of any bargaining capacity. They have to work for the low wage and that abusive employer to get the welfare. So it is a system that rewards low wage and abusive employers very nicely.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
